First impressions of using Powershell core on MacOS

One Month ago I wrote the first post about Powershell Core. In that time I have started using Powershell Core every day with my local scripts on MacOS. Today I want to give you my impressions about using Powershell Core. I know that almost all of Powershell users use it on the Microsoft Windows operating system, but I decided to change my notebook to MacBook Pro and verify Powershell Core in long term usage. If you are interested in my first impressions, enjoy reading.

The first impressions of using Powershell core console

The installation of Powershell Core on MacOS is simple like installing other apps. You can download the installation package from Powershell Core GitHub repository. After installation, the Powershell icon appears in LaunchPad. One of the first shocks was that when I launch Powershell from the Application icon, it always open a new window, so I have two icons in the Dock, first pinned Powershell icon and the second one, an opened console. Powershell icon works something like a shortcut and runs ‘pwsh’ command in the bash console. Bash is the command line console available in UNIX systems, something like CMD.exe in Microsoft Windows.

The first a liked thing

The biggest thing what I like in Powershell Core on MacOS it’s how can I use TAB button. Before, If I wanted to check available Powershell command arguments, in the Microsoft Windows operating system I had to press the Tab button many times and check it one by one. When Powershell Core is running in bash shell window on MacOS, the Tab button works in another way. When I press Tab button two times, I see all available arguments in the list format. It’s a more productive way, and I love it.

The first problem with my own Powershell module

Life would be too easy without difficulties. When I decided to test one of my Powershell modules, I met problems with Invoke-WebRequest command. I can’t input login and password and login to the website because this command in Windows Powershell uses Internet Explorer library to parse HTML which is not available on non-Microsoft operating systems. When I’m using Powershell Core on MacOS, Invoke-WebRequest is available, but I can’t fill out forms.

Conclusion

I wrote about my three impressions of using Powershell Core on MacOS. Maybe you ask yourself, why I changed Microsoft Windows to MacOS. I wanted to do this not only for testing Powershell Core. More things helped me to decide. Maybe I will write a post about this.

After two weeks of using Powershell Core, I met one problem with my Powershell module. I’m sure that I will find more challenges in the future, but now I’m glad that I can use Powershell Core every day and give help not only the Microsoft Windows operating system users who want to improve their jobs with Powershell.